We Learned the Sea

It all started with a kiss--which led to a bar fight and a vow of forever hatred...

Adam Hodgens went to the sleepy little island of Yelson to start up his family's newest luxury resort, not thinking that the inhabitants would actually be opposed to the rise in commercialism. Then he met Shannon Fey, a small woman with one hell of a punch and a temper to back it up.

Fey is the island's jack of all trades, making her living doing random jobs around the island and helping her grandfather maintain the island's lighthouse. Yelson is her home and she refuses to let some expensive resort for the rich and bored come in and suck away the heart and soul of the island.

Hatred doesn't even cover how the two feel for each other as they break into an all out war...that is until Adam finds himself in an awkward position, forcing him to go to his newly proclaimed enemy for help...

Chapters:

Only problem was that this was Nicolas Hodgen's, Adam's father,
third 'dying wish' in the past five years. It seemed like he came
down with some new life-threatening disease every time Adam ended
up on the front cover of one tabloid or another. Despite the fact
that he knew that his father was far from dying and only using
his age as a means to 'reign' his one and only son in, Adam
always fell sucker to the old man's scheme and ended up
obediently following Nicolas' orders.

This is the perfect example: Adam got one DUI and ended up in
this middle-of-nowhere island to supervise the building of the
vacation resort…

And now he was looking at a cow on the roof of the nearly
finished central building.

Yes…after staring up at the sight for what felt like a
disbelieving forever…there was no denying that there was a real,
live, fully grown cow standing on the patio roof of what was
supposed to be the hotel.

Filling the air with aggravated 'moos.'

"You know, it kind adds a certain something…" Takahara Hiro
couldn't finish the thought, he was too busy laughing, bracing
his hands on his legs with long-elegant fingers digging into the
expensive material of his suit, as he gasped for air between
shoulder shaking chuckles.

Adam glared down at Hiro, trying to remind himself that murder
was still illegal. He had been friends with the lawyer since
college and had brought him along to Yelson to help finish the
legal matters of the resort. "I'm so glad that you find this
amusing."

Hiro straightened up, trying to regain his composure, "I don't
find this amusing…" He broke down into laughter once more, "I
find it fucking hilarious." He wiped away tears of mirth from his
crescent-shaped eyes. "Come on, she got a cow on your roof! That
is going above and beyond her usual pranks!"

"Yet again, so glad that you're enjoying yourself." Adam rubbed
the bridge of his nose, looking away from the sight as he pulled
out his cell. Over the last six months Fey, the impish bane of
his existence, had been systematically stealing his sanity.

"What can I do for you Adam?"

Yes, it had gotten to the point that he had Sheriff Jim's number
on speed dial and that he had used it enough that Jim knew Adam's
number on sight.

"How would you go about investigating vandalizing a build via
cow…and, for that matter, how would you go about taking said cow
off a building's roof?"

Adam could have sworn that Jim, stone face and stoic sheriff of
the small Californian island, actually snorted back laughter.
"I'll send a crane down to the resort…as for the investigation; I
could look into matters, though I have a suspicion on who did
it."

"Yeah, same here. Five-one and hundred pounds of pure evil."

"You say that, but you have yet to actually press charges against
her." Hiro had finally gained control and didn't miss the chance
to make a jibe at his friend.

Adam rolled his eyes, covering the cell's mouthpiece with his
hand as he glared over at Hiro. "Yeah, press charges against the
island's golden girl…that will win them over."

"I think she's working in the kitchen at Drevan's today…" There
was subtle note of malicious humor in Jim's voice, drifting into
Adam's ear and making a smile slowly stretch over his face. "And
the lunch rush is in full swing."

"Thanks Jim…feel free to join us there. I'm planning on hanging
around for a while and, trust me, there will be enough food to go
around."

Jim's wavered with a repressed chuckle, "I might just do that. It
should be an entertaining sight."

Laughing, Adam ended the call and turned to Hiro. "Hungry?"

Running his fingers through silken black hair, Hiro just shook
his head with a rueful smile tugging at his lips as he gaze
flickered to the cow once more. "Yeah…I could go for a burger."

+++

Over the half a year that he had been staying on the island, over
looking the progress of the resort, Adam had endeared many,
many…many pranks and harassments from one Shannon Fey. Ever since
his first night on the island, which had led to the infamous bar
fight, imprisonment, and then discovering that someone had let
out all the air of his tires once he had been released, she had
been a constant thorn in his side.

Mature…no…he had long come to terms that Fey was anything but
mature.

Yet the island's populace loved her, so to remain on the locals'
good side he had refrained from taking legal actions against the
infuriating woman. Instead he sank down from his moral pedestal
and played by her rules.

For every prank she did to him, he would return an annoyance onto
her.

Draven's was the name of the one and only bar on the island…and
also acted the one of the more popular restaurants, making the
lunch-time hours chaos.

Servers in jeans and restaurant T-shirt zoomed around the crowded
floor space, wild-eyed and serving out trays of food. Adam felt a
prang of guilt for what he was doing, ordering everything off the
menu just for the satisfaction of watching a frazzled Fey swear
up a storm as she fought to complete the food, but he reminded
himself that he would tip well.

Very well.

"Thanks," he said with a charming smile at the red-faced
waitress. "And sorry for all the trouble," he added with a wink.

The girl's face turned a brighter shade of crimson and she almost
tipped over the chocolate milkshake that she was placing on the
mere sliver of empty table space that they had. They had ordered
one of each flavor. The chocolate one was meant for a stern
expression wearing Jim and almost landed in his lap, but he
managed to save it at the last moment.

"Sorry!" She stuttered, dyed-blue locks of hair fell out of her
short ponytail and into her eyes, which were outlined with thick
lines of black.

Jim held up a hand. "It's alright." Surprisingly enough, since
that first night, the Sheriff had been the most welcoming to the
two outsiders.

She snorted, easing some of the tension in her expression and
straightening her hunched shoulders. "Fey's just as much at
fault. Heard about the cow."

"How do you manage to get a cow on the roof of a building without
anyone knowing?"

Dimples showed up at the one corner of the girl's mouth. "Very
carefully…And, well, it's not like they haven't pulled that stunt
off before."

Adam and Hiro's eyes slowly went to Jim's face as the waitress
walked away.

"They?" Hiro asked right as Adam said, "you mean to tell me that
she has managed to get at least two cows on the roofs of two
seperate buildings on an island this small!"

Jim just shook his head. "Well, of course Cole helped. His family
owns one of the few farms on Yelson. And they did this once
before, with the high school. Fey wanted to graduate with a
bang…so to say." He snagged from potatoes skins off the appetizer
tray in the center of the smorgasbord that took up two tables.
Adam thought they were going to pull over a third one soon.

"It's amazing that she didn't get locked away before now," Adam
muttered under his breath, wiping his grease-covered hands on his
napkin before stretching his arms over his head, trying to make
room for the next round.

"Actually, before your memorable night there, Fey was the only
person I had to put into that cell for many years now."

"That does not surprise me."

Hiro craned his neck to look back into the kitchen, where Fey was
sliding across the floor to get from one side to the next. "Well,
it does for me…a bit. I mean, yeah she's on the odd side, but she
doesn't seem like the trouble making type."

Jim just shrugged. "She's mellowed out over the last couple of
years…" His gaze flicked over to Adam. "That is until you showed
up."

"I'm honored to have been the one to bring out the darkness in
Fey."

"Honestly, I like her better this way." The sheriff said more to
himself than to the other two men.

"Diddo…When Adam dragged me here, no offense, I thought that I
was going to die of boredom. Fey has kept me alive with
entertainment."

"So glad to be a source of amusement for you soulless cretins of
capitalism."

In dreaded unison, the three men lifted their heads and found
cool blue eyes glaring down at them over the edge of a fresh tray
loaded down with a new wave of food.

Hiro looked like he wanted to hide under the table. "Um…don't
mention it."

She just smiled down at him, that evil angelic smile that Adam
had grown accustom to, before tipping the tray over, causing a
cascade of salads and their dressings to fall mainly upon Adam's
unguarded head. Some of the mess landed on Hiro, but she had
dumped it in the way that the sheriff remained clean. "Still
amused?" She snapped, turning on her heel and storming back to
the kitchen through the silence that fell throughout the bar,
which was broken by a snarl behind the counter.

"Alright, enough is enough." Elena Draven, the owner of the bar
that shared her name, threw down the rag that she was using to
wipe down the counter and walked over to where Adam was sitting.
Not the tallest woman, nor the most beautiful, Elena radiated an
intimidating aura that completely petrified Adam whenever that
middle-aged woman was near. "This damn feud between you and Fey
has got to end!"

Adam wiped away ranch dressing from his eyes, mentally cinching
at the thought of the clothes that had just been destroyed. "I
would love it to end…She's the one who won't let this die."

"Right…" Hiro rolled his eyes, brushing dressing-splattered
lettuce out of his hair and off his jacket.

Both Elena and Adam ignored him.

"Here," A ponytail of light-brown hair draped over the bar
owner's shoulder as she bent down to scribble something on a
napkin. "Fey's Kryptonite….Well, anything short of kidnapping
Cole and holding him for ransom."